Oliver Wang
Oliver Wang is an culture writer, scholar, and DJ based in Los Angeles. He's the author of Legions of Boom: Filipino American Mobile DJ Crews of the San Francisco Bay Area and a professor of sociology at CSU-Long Beach. He's the creator of the audioblog soul-sides.com and co-host of the album appreciation podcast, Heat Rocks.
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The iconic group's early music releasing online at last comes with a renewed interest in its career arc. Take a guided tour through one of the most distinguished runs in hip-hop history. -
Trugoy brought skill and care-free charisma to De La Soul's innovative music, which helped to usher in a new age of hip-hop. After years of legal disputes, that music will soon be available again.
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Raucous, outspoken and empowered, Davis, who died last week at 77, always knew what she wanted her music to be — raw — and she took control of her career in an era when few Black women could.
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In 1968, the British singer flew to the U.S. after signing with Atlantic Records. Her acclaimed recordings from this period are collected in Dusty Springfield: The Complete Atlantic Singles 1968-1971.
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Already a veteran by the time she was out of her teens, the early career of Betty Wright, who died Sunday, produced many R&B hits, including a pair of songs that would become career signatures.
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Rampart Records documented L.A.'s Eastside Sound during a fertile period of interracial collaboration from the 1960s through the early 1990s. Now, some of that music has been reissued.
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Hip hop duo Gang Starr broke up in the mid-2000s and in 2010, MC Guru died. So fans were surprised by the announcement of a new, posthumous album called One Of The Best Yet.
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Patrice Rushen's years singing for Elektra Records in the 1970s and '80s helped define late-era disco and R&B. Now, a collection of her classic R&B and dance tunes is being released.
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In 1972, Gaye began work on a follow-up to his classic album, What's Going On. He laid down over a dozen new tracks, but the project stalled and most of the songs were not released until now.
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Throughout their career together, Jones and her band gave listeners something to feel with every recording and every performance. That's still true on their final album.
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The 1972 concerts at The Apollo were recorded but, inexplicably, never released — until now. They show a side of Brown content to turn the show over to his collaborators.
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Maybe this is all part of some performance-art piece we've been unwittingly sucked into. But either way, it seems to be working.
